The US is so tight-lipped about its spy satellites, even the resolution of their images are classified, and it forces US commercial satellite operators to degrade image resolution as well. Maybe I'm wrong, but if it were trivial to do, then someone should launch a satellite imaging startup outside of US jurisdiction.
> even the resolution of their images are classified
Yeah, but physics isn't. Good resolution requires large mirrors. Large mirrors require large satellites. These aren't cubesats we're talking about; optical American spy satellites have 2.4 meter wide mirrors and are more than 10 meters long. The only non-US/Chinese/Russian rocket that can launch such a satellite in principle is the Ariane 5, but AFAIK they don't fly that to polar orbits.
In any case, not many people have the equipment laying around to make such large mirrors, or the expertise, or a stockpile of such mirrors. Russia likely has all three, or certainly once did.
>Apparently valuable enough to do a prisoner exchange for.
You don't do prisoner exchanges because of the valuable contributions of that agent, you do prisoner exchanges to ensure future contributions by other agents.
>I also doubt the quality of the optics in Russian satellites.
They're just fine. What kind of quality do you think they need to hit a power plant with a missile? Most of their missiles aren't that precise anyway.
There's only an extremely limited set of circumstances where drone footage of power infrastructure could be useful.
Uh, why? I can understand doubting the electronics in their satellites, but the mirrors? Why do you think Russia can't polish mirrors?